Discussion

Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay Notes

In the last few weeks we have made several forays to this area, so i have a but of info to add -

First, we have had a couple of quite excellent meals at Baku Palace in Sheepshead Bay - still a devastated area. Lamb dishes, sturgeon kebabs, with a delicious accompanying rice, Baku special salad (a russian potato and cooked veg salad with some smoked salmon and caviar),khutab, veg and meat, and a variety of eggplant dishes were all excellent. decent Georgian red wine, and very nice tea service, good homemade bread and a friendly welcome made us very happy. The big russian grocery store in the former Lundys next door is also very nice.

We tried twice to go to Primorski's for lunch but no luck - is it not open then? Having failed today, we headed to Brighton Beach, also still soggy, and had an uninspiring meal at Primorski, which I had recommended before. No kharcho or lamb main was available, and while the borscht and fish soup were both quite good, the waiter failed to bring the sour cream for the borscht, and the main course chicken dishes were both poor. My fried chicken, supposedly tabaki, which had formerly been really well seasoned was a bland and overcooked piece of cornish hen - daughters georgian labeled chicken dish had no seasoning in the sauce and seemed to be back and neck pieces - only a couple bites of chicken. Bread was purchased and rewarmed and not homemade, no cabbage salad with the lunch as formerly.. I felt like the georgian cooking we had liked was no longer happening here. Maybe they are offering something good for dinner, but I can no longer recommend their cheap lunch offering

Things got brighter when we dropped by the Georgian Bread store, now at 190 Brighton 11, just east of CIA and north of BBA. Friendly welcome, and we took home dough pockets with cheese and well seasoned cabbage, and excellent spinach phakli, lobio and olivier salad (potato salad with veg, pickles and onions), highly recommended. Funnily, when we got home and installed our new cable box, the rationale for this trip, there was an Anthony Bordain show feating both the Georgian Bread and Primorski stops. I guess the guzzling of vodka and perhaps a better eveing menu gave him a better expierience at the latter than we had.

Big correction in the above, the place we tried to go for lunch twice was PIROSMANI on Ave U - Primorski's of course we visited and it seemed to have slid to soviet style from the former tasty georgian specialties.

I don't know what Georgian Bread place you went to, but the Georgian Bread place on Neptune is still there. It's been undergoing renovations. They told us (about two hours ago) it would be open tomorrow (12/29), but I don't know if that will be the case. The address you listed above is a shoe store.

Sorry, I made a second error in the above post. the place we went to was at 109 rather than 190 Brighton 11 . Its sign says Brick Oven Bread.We cruised Neptune a couple of times looking for the Georgian Bread place you are referring to, that I have visited many times - we must not have spotted it. Anyway, I then googled Georgian Bread and found a place on Brighton 11, in the first block down from BBA and on the right. http://brooklyn.citysearch.com/profil... It had a big tandoor in the back and the same breads and salads I was familiar with from Neptune Ave. I have no idea if it is affilated with the Neptune Ave store, but the products are similar and good.

Thanks for the write-up on Baku Palace, Jen—I've been wondering about that place.

Another good place for georgian breads and salads a little closer to home is Taste of Georgia on 18th and Kings Highway in Midwood. Their salads are excellent and their breads good, though perhaps not as good as the Georgian Bread place on Neptune. However, last time I was at the Neptune Ave store, they were out of all salads and had nothing but bread. So good to know there is another decent place right around there to fall back on.

I have a friend who has brought me the long bread from Kings Hway a few times - but I didnt think it was as good as the neptune ave store, and really, for me, the cheesy breads are the thing.

Baku palace does have some items on the menu I would not recommend - for example their smoked eel salad, has a japanese miso type dressing and a bunch of seaweed. And their shredded vegetable relishes with the dishes are not the best seasoned of that type of item. The spicy sauce with the meats was better than the pomegranate based sauce offered with the fish. The lula kebabs and lamb ribs and both the veg and meat (lamb) kutab were excellent..And they have handsome young waiters who like to play romantic music/opera videos, endearing. the tea is served in glasses and has a touch of lapsang souchong or earl grey - they serve with sugar cubes and a dish of delicious preserved wild cherries.

agree the cheesy breads are not as good, but i find at the neptune ave store getting the bread is hit or miss--sometimes they have it, sometimes they don't. I do find the salads/spreads at Taste of Georgia to be excellent, and the long breads are decent. The salads/spreads and the bread makes a nice meal.

I just came from 14th Avenue where the Royal Crown Paneficio bakery between 65th & 66th is closed with a "For Rent" sign. Got teary and circled the block a few times in utter disbelief.

Take heart! The 63rd Street/14th Ave. Royal Crown II is still open, albeit shorter hours and many of their crown jewel items - like creamy golden cheese danish topped with toasted almonds - have been eliminated.

We had this experience before Christmas! They are back to the original bakeshop only, not the pastry shop. No more chestnut bread, no more baked figs for Christmas season. My (grown) kids were devastated. The girl in the shop, who was hardly a veteran, suggested going over to the Bay Ridge store for the pastries. Very sad.

The Panino Magnifico place, which sold hot food, on the 63-64th street block of 14th Ave, closed some months ago. The old bakery, where the bread has been baked since I can remember, a door or two north of the former Panino Magnifico location and across from the Santa Rosalio Church, is now open for retail. The retail pastry shop on the block between 65th and 66th has now closed.

I wonder if fellow hounds have more info on the original baker of the Georgian Bread place on Neptune (blue awning, on neptune between 4th and 5th or 5th and 6th)? Yes, they've reopened since Sandy, but things have changed, (the oven painted red for one), and the older tall baker has not been around. The long flat bread tastes different.

Will have to check out the other place (109 Brighton 11) Jen posted about. Thanks!